A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains or may contain material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the photocopy reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates in general to a gaming device, and more particularly to a gaming device including a selection and multiple award distribution bonus scheme.
Many existing gaming machines, such as, traditional slot machines, include bonus schemes. Typically, a bonus round of the bonus scheme begins when a player reaches a bonus triggering event in the primary game of the gaming device. In slot machines that employ reels, the triggering event generally occurs when the player reaches a predetermined combination of symbols on the reels. In general, the bonus round provides the player with an opportunity to gain and accumulate a bonus value, award or prize before the bonus round ends or terminates.
To increase player enjoyment and excitement, it is desirable to provide players with gaming devices having new bonus schemes.
The present invention provides a gaming device and method which includes a group of selections and a plurality of awards distributed to the selections. The player chooses or selects one of the selections and the game distributes the awards to all of the selections. The player receives the awards distributed to the player""s selection. The game randomly determines which awards are distributed to the selections.
In one preferred embodiment, the present invention utilizes a number of award pools to randomly determine the awards distributed to the player. The award pools provide the player with a chance of receiving awards from each award pool ranging from a minimum number of awards in a pool to a maximum number of awards in a pool wherein the lowest award preferably includes an award associated with at least one of the distributed awards.
To further enhance player excitement and entertainment, the present invention provides a modifier associated with the player""s selection. If the player receives an award which is associated with the modifier, the player""s total award is modified (i.e., such as doubled). The modifier increases the player""s award total based on any suitable modifying factor. The player receives the modifier if the award associated with the modifier is distributed to the player""s selection.